An interview with European CTO of the Year, Jonathan O’Halloran

Oct 26, 2015

An insight into the world of Europe’s top CTO

QuantuMDx is a company making waves, disrupting an industry, and improving healthcare all over the world. Their flagship product is an ingenious handheld laboratory, which delivers diagnostic results within minutes, for just a few dollars. This is a story of how technology really can positively affect the real world, and help those who are in desperate need.

We were lucky enough to speak to QuantuMDx´s co-founder and CTO, Jonathan O´Halloran, who was recently awarded 2015 European CTO of the Year in the SME category.

Hi Jonathan! You´re the CTO of a company achieving extraordinary things. What do you see as some of the most difficult and stressful elements of your role?

When you take a technology from idea to product, you have to plan for a 10 year development, which means you need to predict where the market will be in 10 years.
During this time, many internal and external factors can change and you have to be brave enough to pivot and halt lines of development fast and start the development process again.

The pressure of managing all this, as well as fund raising, people management and having to juggle a personal life makes for a stressful life. This is why you can only do this role if you are passionate about what you do. It’s hard, but so important, for me to take step back sometimes and remember what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.

The QuantuMDx staff are all great too, they are always so positive and focused on making this incredible vision a reality and that is so motivating.

And there must be plenty of rewarding aspects, yes?

Absolutely! I spent years in Africa observing the fight against disease and the emerging threat of drug resistance, our device is a true solution to complex DNA diagnostics in the field, where ease of use, handheld and robust for portability, speed and battery operation are imperative.

Knowing that the work we do is not only breaking new grounds in terms of scientific knowledge but will also create a positive impact on global health challenges, and more importantly, individuals is the most rewarding part. It is humbling to think that within the next 5-10 years, millions of people’s lives could have been saved, or at least significantly improved by the work we are doing.

Would you say that the award of European CTO of the Year is the pinnacle of your career so far?

It is a great honour and I was incredibly humbled to have received the award. It is a fantastic acknowledgement and validation of the hard work that has been put into developing Q-POC over the years and I am looking ahead into what I know is a very exciting future for us.

You mentioned preparing for 10 years in advance earlier, and you´ve certainly forged ahead in the past decade. What do you hope to achieve in the next 10 years?

I want to see every healthcare worker in the world using Q-POC as their gold-standard diagnostic tool and for these Q-POCs to form a global network, monitoring and preventing the spread of pathogens before they become an epidemic – helping to save millions of lives globally.

What advice would you give to budding CTOs hoping to emulate your success?

Find a technology you really believe in, that addresses a need that you are passionate about and willing to give up a decade of your life to develop, because that is the way you will make a success of it.

Thanks to Jonathan for speaking to Ribbonfish. You can find our more about QuantuMDx by visiting their website. You can also follow Jonathan on Twitter, here.

The team at Ribbonfish strive to make the job of a CTO easier than ever before. We implement intuitive cloud-based technologies to improve processes, enhance sales, and increase efficiency in large organisations.